Scarborough: Obama Proves He Can Play Hardball

President Barack Obama's support of the "nuclear option," passed Thursday on a partisan vote in the Senate, proves the president is a "bare-knuckled brawler" who can play "hardball," MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough said Friday.

"I will say this, for progressives that have said that this president doesn't play hardball, that he's not a bare-knuckled brawler, that he's not afraid to get down in the mud and be dirty and fight dirty and fight hard — which Progressives have been saying for years — I think you can take that complaint about your president off the table," Scarborough told the "Morning Joe" panel.

Democrats in the Senate passed a measure Thursday that allows a simple majority to approve executive branch and lower-court nominees. Scarborough suggested history would look upon the actions of President Obama as engaging in a "breathtaking grab of power."

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"Think about it. Healthcare reform itself was passed by blowing up the filibuster," Scarborough said.

"The president, over the past year, has been unilaterally making one change after another, without any approval from the United States Congress," the GOP congressman-turned-TV host added.

Judges, who will be determining the constitutionality of the president's actions, would now "get through by a nuclear option," Scarborough predicted.

He also pondered if Democrats realized the move could backfire, because "2014 is a pretty grim landscape right now for them."